Current Status: Rent Control

SB 5222 and HB 1217 are similar bills making progress through the Washington legislature. They both have the headline feature of an annual cap of 7% on rent increases and they are both full of a whole truck load of other regulations, conditions and new bureaucracy.

Reading through the bills reminds me of an old joke: There are two things that you don’t want to see how they are made: sausages and laws. If you, however, want to bury yourself in the guts of the political process, you can find it all here: SB 5222 HB 1217

Or the same summary for both bills:
Improving housing stability for tenants subject to the residential landlord-tenant act and the manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant act by limiting rent and fee increases, requiring notice of rent and fee increases, limiting fees and deposits, establishing a landlord resource center and associated services, authorizing tenant lease termination, creating parity between lease types, and providing for attorney general enforcement.

Importantly, the bills also allow individual causes of action rather than relying solely on the Attorney General.

The Republican minority in the legislature has proposed the more targeted alternative of improving rental assistance to low-income individuals along with other measures to improve the overall supply of more affordable housing. Their bills, however, appear to be going nowhere.

By the way, the 7% cap would mean our space rent could only increase by $91 instead of the usual $100 and we would have 180 days’ notice rather than 90.